1974 Roadrunner Re-Paint and Some Upgrades

[RR Fan Dan]

Going to narrow the frame rails to make room for the headers.

 

[RR Fan Dan]

Started narrowing frame rails and sand blasting. Battery tray area is ugly.

 

[RR Fan Dan]

A list of suspension, brakes, and steering parts ordered and going back on the car

• Suspension, Brakes, Fuel, Steering
  
  • Most all suspension pieces are powder coated as annotated with *
  • Auto Metal Direct subframe connectors weld in
  • Bergman 1.14” torsion bars * Bergman
  • ADDCO 1.125” front sway bar * Bergman
  • Kanter/PST LCA support brackets
  • Greasable pivot shafts * Firm Feel
  • Firm Feel Tubular upper control arms with positive castor *
  • Firm Feel aluminum cross member and body mounts
  • Rear RCD Bilstein shocks. Bergman
  • Front KYB Excel shocks
  • ADDCO 0.75” rear sway bar *
  • Borgeson 14:1 power steering gear box and power steering cooler Bergman
  • 11” Wilwood disc brakes *
  • 11” rear drums with balanced drums* and ceramic shoes, all other rear brake parts rebuilt with factory spec new parts
  • SS brake lines and SS hoses with PTFE coating inside Bergman
  • Leeds polished master cylinder and vacuum booster Bergman
  • Stock HD leaf springs
  • Flaming River tilt steering column and black satin Mopar Tuff steering wheel
  • Urethane bushings throughout
  • All other suspension parts (tie rods, LCA struts, pitman arm, idler arm, ball joints, adjusting sleeves, etc..,) have been replaced with factory spec new.
  • New fuel tank and sending unit
  • 3/8” stainless supply line, 1/4” stainless return and vapor lines
  • 14” American Racing TT-II wheels with BFG radial TA’s 215/70/14

 

[RR Fan Dan]

50 bags of glass media, or 2500lbs (2.25 tons), and the bottom stripped.

 

[RSMS]

50 bags of glass media, or 2500lbs (2.25 tons), and the bottom stripped.

View attachment 1955244View attachment 1955245View attachment 1955246

Did you find any more areas of concern?

 

[RR Fan Dan]

Did you find any more areas of concern?

Nothing yet other than what I posted so far. Lower rear quarters, battery tray area, small area around rear window, one area on rear floor pan, and the rest is pin holes and minor spots. Nothing that can’t be fixed. My body guy is one hell of a metal worker/welder/fabricator. I wish they made fenders for this car. The fenders are not rusted but full of dimples. Like someone took a ball peen hammer to them. Hood is rough too like that. New fenders and a new hood and there would be almost no filler required.

 

[RSMS]

Nothing yet other than what I posted so far. Lower rear quarters, battery tray area, small area around rear window, one area on rear floor pan, and the rest is pin holes and minor spots. Nothing that can’t be fixed. My body guy is one hell of a metal worker/welder/fabricator. I wish they made fenders for this car. The fenders are not rusted but full of dimples. Like someone took a ball peen hammer to them. Hood is rough too like that. New fenders and a new hood and there would be almost no filler required.

Nice, I was thinking it would be worse than that underneath after seeing your initial posts. Your fenders were perplexing, hard to imagine why they got so bad, hopefully a few hours with a couple of hammers and dollies can improve them a lot. Glad to see it being done right

 

[RR Fan Dan]

Nice, I was thinking it would be worse than that underneath after seeing your initial posts.

The one thing you can get for these cars is floor pans and trunk. I think they were all replaced during the previous resto. One of them was already starting to rust through because it wasn’t sealed properly. They also went crazy with seam sealer. Globbed that **** thick in the trunk and other areas. Took some time to scrap all that out and of course there was rust starting to form already underneath because of improper prep.

Your fenders were perplexing, hard to imagine why they got so bad

I’m thinking an angry ex-wife or girlfriend.

 

[RR Fan Dan]

Hoping to get back on the car next week. My shop guy and also friend who is doing the heavy lifting is on vacation. We plan on finishing up the metal work and sealing all the small areas where moisture could penetrate by either welds or sealer. Then epoxy coat and two coats of base on the bottom since base sands better than epoxy. Expect to see some more progress next week.

 

[donmodro]

How do all of the inner structures, rockers, frame rails and floors look. I would want to do a very thorough inspection to verify the car's "bones" look solid. All of the damage shown looks to be mainly superficial to the core of the car. Usually when they look like this there is a lot more damage, especially if the car came from the salty roads of a northern state. Any idea why the fenders were so dented up, they seemed to have a lot of unusual damage unless they were pretty crunched and tried to be crudely straightened before filling with way too much filler. Your car did look nice in the pictures for sure, sucks to see how they made it look that way.

I'm late to this thread, but no kidding. We dug into the driver's side quarter of the '74 Road Runner my dad and I have and there was so much rust. Ended up driving a quarter panel across country from here in AZ back to PA to repair it, and even that quarter needed some patches.

 

[donmodro]

Nothing yet other than what I posted so far. Lower rear quarters, battery tray area, small area around rear window, one area on rear floor pan, and the rest is pin holes and minor spots. Nothing that can’t be fixed. My body guy is one hell of a metal worker/welder/fabricator. I wish they made fenders for this car. The fenders are not rusted but full of dimples. Like someone took a ball peen hammer to them. Hood is rough too like that. New fenders and a new hood and there would be almost no filler required.

Desert Valley Auto Parts in Black Canyon City (north of Phoenix) had a few 73/74's the last time I was there in 2024. I live in the area, just throwing it out there.